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A Christmas Carol (TV story)
A Christmas Carol 'is the 2010 Christmas Special of ''Doctor Who. It was written by Steven Moffat, directed by Toby Haynes and featured Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor, Karen Gillan as Amy Pond and Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams. Overview To be added Synopsis Amy and Rory are trapped on a crashing space liner, hanging above a winter planet with no way to land and the only way the Doctor can rescue them is to save the soul of a lonely old miser, changing his past to try to rewrite his future. But is Kazran Sardick, the richest and most powerful man in Sardicktown, beyond redemption? And what is lurking in the fogs of Christmas Eve? The solution lies in a love that can rewrite time itself... Plot Above the skies of a Christmas planet in the 44th Century, a large passenger starship races uncontrollably through the heavy mass of clouds obscuring their vision and descent. As the pilot and her crew members attempt to level off, Amy emerges in the control room from the honeymoon suite and informs the captain that she called for help just as Rory emerges (also in costume from the honeymoon suite). As the ship plummets, a message is received from nearby reading "Come along, Pond" as the TARDIS flies around the outside of the hull to which Amy responds to the captain's bafflement with "It's Christmas!" On the surface, in the populated Sardicktown, the village's namesake Kazran Sardick, a curmudgeonly, bitter old man receives a visit from a poor family of whom he holds a frozen member as 'security' who plead with him to release her from Christmas Day, but Sardick flatly refuses and ushers them away. As his security leaves with them, the fireplace erupts and the Doctor barrel rolls into the room, having jumped down the chimney. He presses various questions to Sardick when he notices a large machine terminal that controls the cloud belt his companions' ship is trapped in. He attempts to deactivate it and allow the ship to land but Sardick demonstrates that the machine's isomorphic controls only respond to his brainwaves. Having grown bored of the Doctor's ramblings, Sardick orders him thrown out with the family when the youngest child breaks free and throws a lump of coal at Sardick's head. He rises to strike him but deals no blows on the boy and orders the family ejected. The Doctor remains and deduces that Sardick isn't as cold-hearted as he seems, having noted the arrangement of the furniture and lack of a Christmas Tree such as in the portrait of Kazran's father Elliot Sardick and the fact that he didn't hit the boy that he doesn't want to be like him before he leaves. He contacts Amy on the ship before his attention is drawn to a small shoal of fish swimming in the fog and gets an idea. That evening, he returns to Sardick's house and restores a recording he'd made when he was a child depicting a night where he tried to lure in a fish so he could see one when his father furiously interrupts him and strikes him. While Kazran watches his younger self sob in the footage, the Doctor disappears in the TARDIS and reappears outside young Kazran's bedroom in the footage, having travelled back to the night of it's recording and old Kazran's memories begin to change. Setting his sonic screwdriver up as a lure for a fish, the Doctor and young Kazran hide in the cupboard while recording the events so old Kazran can watch in the future. Young Kazran explains that his interest in fish came when he missed the chance to see a whole shoal of fish break free at his school and everybody has a story from that day except him. The lure is successful and the Doctor goes out to explain the arrival, observing the fish gently before a shark swims into the bedroom and eats the fish and the screwdriver. The Doctor retreats back into the cupboard with young Kazran and the recording is destroyed when the shark smashes through the door. While Kazran remembers the events as they transpire, the Doctor manages to retrieve enough of his screwdriver from inside the shark while it's mouth is wedged open and stun it while the other half remains in the shark. Taking it outside, Kazran is upset that the shark isn't likely to survive any attempts to return it to the cloud belt until the Doctor tells him that they'd need a form of life support and Kazran takes him down to the cold storage to find something suitable. Getting the code from older Kazran, the Doctor and young Kazran find a cold storage unit containing an occupant who would be willing to lend it. Before they can release her, however, the shark emerges in cold storage, having found the strength to follow them and attacks. While Kazran runs, he hides when he hears a song coming from nearby; he and the Doctor return to find the ice box's occupant, Abigail Pettigrew, singing the shark into calmness after which they load it into the icebox and bring it to the TARDIS. While old Kazran remembers the events, the Doctor lands the TARDIS in the cloud belt and releases the shark while young Kazran starts taking photographs, which old Kazran digs out and reminisces on in the future. They return to cold storage and Abigail returns to her icebox and Kazran, to the Doctor's surprise, promises that he will come every Christmas Eve. From then on, every Christmas Eve, the Doctor and Kazran return to cold storage and release Abigail and go on an adventure before placing her back in the icebox; on one of their adventures, the Doctor takes them on a sleigh ride above the town using the shark they freed to pull them. Over the years, Kazran grows up from a child to a nervous teenager and a striking young man Abigail takes a shine to. On Abigail's request one year, the Doctor takes them to visit her family for Christmas dinner; her sister Isabella is unsure of Kazran, holding him in the same esteem as his father but Abigail is certain that he is nothing like him. When they return to cold storage, the Doctor leaves for the next year while Kazran and Abigail, who had fallen in love, share a kiss. While old Kazran rummages through his new memories, he stops on a picture of their trip to 20th Century Hollywood, where Kazran finds Abigail crying by herself and informs him of something bad. When the Doctor returns them home, Abigail returns to the icebox and Kazran informs the Doctor that they should end their annual arrangement now that he's got work to do with his father; the Doctor suspects something is wrong and gives Kazran the other half of his broken screwdriver to signal him if he needs him. Over time, Elliot completes the cloud belt machine and Kazran ponders on summoning the Doctor for help, but when he sees he's already there, he shuns him and places the screwdriver half in a draw that old Kazran digs out in the future. Still refusing to let the ship land, Amy appears to him as a projection and brings him down to cold storage to find that all the passengers on the ship above a singing for their lives, trying to control the cloud belt like Abigail did, but it isn't working. Kazran admits to Amy that Abigail was ill when she went into the ice and used up all the time she had with him over those Christmas Eves and says he begrudges the Doctor for being the one responsible for those feelings developing in the first place by rewriting his life to suit himself. Amy ends the hologram and Kazran finds himself back in cold storage; the Doctor says that having shown him the past and the presents, the only thing left to show him is the future. He angrily tells him that he doesn't care about what the future will bring any more than he does about letting everybody above him die. The Doctor then directs his attention to young Kazran standing behind him, who sees his father Elliot in him; old Kazran stands to strike his younger self, but remembers his time with Abigail and breaks down into sobs. With little time left, he agrees to help the Doctor save the people and attempts to shut off the machine, but the changes to his life and, by extension, his personality make him unrecognisable by the device. Remembering that the other half of the eaten screwdriver is still in the shark in the centre of the cloud layer, the Doctor has the idea to try and send a signal through to the other half that will settle the cloud layer enough to bring the ship down safely. However, he solemnly tells Kazran that they'd have to release Abigail for her last day of life to do it. Old Kazran is apprehensive to see her die but Abigail, when released, is content with using her last hours for Christmas Day. Just minutes away from crashing, Abigail's song resonates through the ice crystals in the cloud belt and calms the storm, allowing the sky to snow again and the ship to level off and land well. After the Doctor returns young Kazran to his time period, Amy and Rory find him admiring the townsfolks' snowmen and they head back to the TARDIS. Before they leave, Amy ponders on where Kazran and Abigail are now and the Doctor looks up to the sky, uttering the sentiment "Halfway out of the dark" as Kazran and Abigail fly overhead in the shark-pulled sleigh for their last day together. Cast * The Doctor - Matt Smith * Amy Pond - Karen Gillan * Rory - Arthur Darvill * Kazran / Elliot Sardick - Michael Gambon * Abigail - Katherine Jenkins * Young Kazran - Laurence Belcher * Adult Kazran - Danny Horn * Pilot - Leo Bill * Captain - Pooky Quesnel * Co-pilot - Micah Balfour * Old Benjamin - Steve North * Boy & Benjamin - Bailey Pepper * Servant - Tim Plester * Eric - Nick Malinowski * Isabella - Laura Rogers * Old Isabella - Meg Wynn-Owen Crew To be added References To be added Story Notes To be added Continuity To be added Home video and audio releases To be added External Links * Official ''A Christmas Carol'' page on '''Doctor Who Website